MISSION AND PURPOSE

The Cross-Bay Ferry is a regional effort designed to demonstrate water transportation technology and service options to the residents and businesses of the Tampa Bay region. The Cross-Bay Ferry is a collaboration between St. Petersburg, Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pinellas County and the Florida Department of Transportation.

The Cross-Bay Ferry will operate between November 1, 2018 and April 30, 2019 between the Vinoy Basin in downtown St. Petersburg and The Florida Aquarium Wharf next to Sparkman Wharf in the Channel District of downtown Tampa.

This second season for the Cross-Bay Ferry project has a number of explicit purposes.

This season is designed to better understand and develop the potential for intercity ferry service during evenings and weekends. This service would be the “off-peak” complement for the proposed South County-MacDill Air Force Base commuter ferry project under development by Hillsborough County. Taken together, these routes could provide strong water transit service 14 hours per day, 7 days per week.

This new season of service will also demonstrate new multi-modal connections to two new ferry terminal locations, Bayshore Drive in downtown St. Petersburg and at The Florida Aquarium Wharf, next to Sparkman Wharf in the Channel District in downtown Tampa. Ferry customers will be able to park in a variety of urban locations and make use of St. Petersburg’s expanded downtown transit service and Tampa’s free and expanded streetcar service to get to these new terminal locations.

This new season will also have improved service hours, that will include four roundtrips on Fridays and Saturdays, and improved evening service hours on Tuesdays through Thursdays. St. Petersburg residents and visitors will be able to use the service to get to events at Amalie Arena, and Tampa residents and visitors will have more time on weeknights to dine and shop in downtown St. Petersburg.

Customer surveys will be taken continuously throughout the project in order to quantify consumer interest in water transportation as well as to gain better insight in how future service might be designed and operated.